A public meeting in Donabate is being organised to update residents of the peninsula on the infrastructural and housing development issues. The meeting is being organised on Tuesday, February 6, in the Parish Hall in Donabate at 8.pm. It is being organised by Supporting Proper Development in Donabate (SPDD). SPDD is not opposed to housing, but wants it developed in a way that is sustainable.

All the TDs and senators in the electoral area have been invited, along with the Councillors for the Swords Ward. The area suffers from chronic infrastructural deficits, with this being exacerbated by the huge volume of construction projects under way at the moment. There are major concerns about the safety of children, going and coming from school, due to the truck movements particularly on the narrow Portrane Road.

Fingal County Council is planning the development of 1,000 houses – made up of 300 social houses and 200 affordable, with the rest private houses – for the lands at Ballymastone it owns.

SPDD is seeking to be consulted about planned developments in the area, but its efforts have been largely rebuffed by officials and public representatives.

The meeting will outline the efforts by SPDD to engage on the issues affecting the area since the last meeting in September.

These include meetings with the Housing Minister, the county manager and senior officials and all the area’s TDs and Councillors.

A motion of no confidence in the county manager was passed a packed meeting in Donabate. Those at the meeting agreed that a surge in building on the peninsula was happening despite chronic infrastructural deficits. A huge volume of construction traffic was creating dangers for thousands of children going and coming from school every day. People at the meeting stressed they are not opposed in any way to housing, but the area is under huge strain. Narrow footpaths and one road access to the peninsula meant the area was exposed to major risks.

The meeting was organised by Supporting Proper Development in Donabate (SPDD). It was attended by TDs, senators and a number of councillors. They were told residents fear a developer free-for-all is at play before sufficient infrastructure is in place. The meeting was told the population is set to surge to 21,000 people by 2023 by the end of the Donabate Local Area Plan (LAP). Already more than 1,000 housing units are under construction or have been given planning permission. This equates to 3,500 people.

SPDD supports sustainable development in Donabate and fully recognises the current housing crisis. The group is not against housing, but construction that takes place must be sustainable and in line with the provisions of the Local Area Plan, the meeting was told. But the current building surge will mean Donabate will end up a town the size of Athlone, the meeting heard.

Despite this, the busy Portrane Road is narrow and unsuitable, there is one road in and out of the peninsula, the road at the bridge has not been widened, and two roads meet at the bridge – the Hearse road and Turvey Avenue. People at the meeting were told the planned Donabate Distributor Road has yet to start, and has been downgraded from a dual-carriageway to a single carriageway. The failure to provide a slipway on to the M1 will just redistribute the traffic pinch points, the meeting heard. And there are no plans to upgrade the Hearse Road.

The meeting was also told water pressure is low due to the fact that there is a 47 year old 12 inch pipe servicing the area. There is no garda station, and schools are nearing capacity. Donabate trains are already at capacity. Persistent flooding in the area will be worsened by a large volume of construction, the meeting was told by a number of speakers. The hundreds of people at the meeting passed motions expressing no confidence in the county manager, the Fingal County Council planning department, and the councillors on the Local Area Committee.

A motion was also passed calling on SPDD to reactivate the community council, and motion was passed mandating SPDD to represent the community. And the meeting passed a motion called for the prioritisation of social housing for people on peninsula.

Some interesting points. the forecast is for Donabate to have a population of 21,000, similar to Athlone or Naas. but so far there are no plans to upgrade the Hearse Road or provide an enhanced water supply that could serve that many people. Cart before the horse thinking again from Fingal Co. Co.

So, as things stand, Fingal are planning to build a town the size of Athlone and serve it with one narrow, perpetually flooded boreen; a plan so ridiculous you wouldn't think that even the Fingal planners would be daft enough to come up with it.

SPDD did get to meet the Fingal Chief Executive but they didn't seem overly impressed with him, although in fairness, a couple of the local councillors thought that the meeting went reasonably well. They also thought they had a meeting with the Minister for Housing but strangely he cancelled at the last minute and sent his junior Minister instead.

There was criticism of current building sites and it was pointed out that all of these are being built as extras to what was agreed in the Donabate LAP. The builders at Glaslinn and Somerton especially took flak, the former for destroying the road and the latter for closing the footpath to the school. The danger of large trucks moving through a village totally unsuited for such vehicles was also pointed out. So too was the fact that Ballymastone, the site for 1000 proposed houses is regularly flooded.

Brendan Ryan said that as a community we should use the proposed development as leverage to get the infrastructure and other benefits, such as a Garda Station. He pointed out that councils like Fingal are under pressure to produce new housing so there's no point is trying to stop the development. We just need to make it work for us. The other politicians seemed to agree with this assessment. This is also the raison d'etre of SPDD.

It ended with a no confidence motion in the Fingal Chief Executive and its Planning Department. It'll probably make no difference but, amusingly, it was passed unanimously.

There's probably other stuff that I've forgotten to mention. But a good meeting all round and huge kudos go to the people organising SPDD. Well done, folks.

Development plans are in progress. The population of the Donabate Peninsula will soon exceed 21,000 people with the addition 4,000 housing units. Unfortunately, there are:

No assurances for Dart, additional train services or bus services

No guarantees of significant upgrading of either the Turvey Road or Hearse Road (no road widening, footpath, cycle lane or hard shoulder)

No guarantee of completion of the Malahide walkway

No plans for a police station

No plan for any significant community facilities (swimming pool, larger library, public playing areas, teenage facilities etc.) The Fingal 2017-2023 LAP includes objectives for swimming pools in Skerries, Rush and Balbriggan but none for Donabate even though it was acknowledged in the 2016 LAP one was needed.

No guarantee of footpath upgrade in areas of high footfall e.g. Turvey Road

No agreements for any constructive community consultation

Furthermore:

HGVs are regularly on narrow roads endangering children walking on outdated footpaths to and from school

New estates will approach 36 houses per hectare. Gardens, parking and green spaces will be minimum. This is in stark contrast to:

Existing estates in Donabate: Beverton and The Links have densities of 21 and 24 houses per hectare respectively

Current development elsewhere in Fingal: two estates under development in Broomfield, Malahide will have densities of between 10 and 20 houses per hectare

Roads are regularly flooding

SPDD Aims

SPDD recognises the need for housing and wishes for development to be carried out in a sustainable way

Appropriate community facilities and infrastructure (roads and public transport) must be put in place to reflect the growing population

Development must be for a sustainable community (elderly people, families of various sizes, 1st time buyers)

All development must be carried out in a safe manner. No HGVs passing nearing schools during school run hours. The number of developments that can happen concurrently must be limited if the infrastructure can’t support it.

What can you do?

Contact your local politicians regarding your concerns. It is important to contact as many as possible. Full contact details contained below

Support SPDD. Sign up to the email list: spdd17@gmail.com. Follow and Like the Facebook page (Supporting Proper Development in Donabate SPDD). Join the committee.

Donabate will exceed 21,000 and have a similar population to Naas and Athlone. As a comparison here is an example of some facilities Athlone and Naas have. There are no plans for any such facilities in Donabate.

SPDD recognises the need for housing and wishes for development in Donabate to be carried out in a sustainable way that enhances and reflects the needs of a growing community. @SPDD17

All points raised fully agreed with here. Have to say SPDD are doing excellent work in representing the wider concerns and issues of the community, so well done and thank you.

Brendan Ryan's commentary, on utilising 'leverage' to obtain the key utilities needed to responsibly develop Donabate to the capacities indicated, is laughable for me and frustrating as well that this seems to be the best response that other local politicians can offer the peninsula. Especially when the county manager is obviously intent on focusing efforts on mandated units rather than infrastructure. Doing this with a fairly obvious disregard for the wishes of local communities and attempting to jilt local opinion on the need for substantial infrastructure to be in place, is at odds with the nature of county manager position. You would think that the the county manager job entails safe-guarding the long-term future, heath and development of the area and not reactively toeing the line on political grandstanding and demands from central government. Obviously I'm wrong.

it's clear (to me anyway) that the pomp and ceremony around the distributor road work starting before Christmas was just an exercise in spin. The only thing that has happened is a sign gone up. We wont see that road complete before 2022. come back to this post when that happens to prove i'm right

sure the county manager himself was reported as saying that opposition to affirdable housing wont be tolerated. This was reported in the Fingal Independent last week and if true, it flies in the face of democracy. Indicating to me that he doesn't believe we should be allowed object. Of course the article could be wrong/taken out of context.

We are a dumping ground out here for the Government and subsequently Fingal County Councils problems. No infrastructure planned, except for a supposed distributor road, and a 120% increase in population.

Thankfully we have a group such as SPDD. Their comparison to Athlone and Naas above. Towns that have countless number of amenities, shops, roads, schools etc. And us here with 1 road in and out. A handful of shops. Schools that have waiting lists. If it wasn't so serious it'd be hilarious

Agreed alright Vlad, but as long as it's done properly is entirely the issue. They are obviously showing a complete lack of foresight as to sustainable and responsible development & services for the areas current and potential residents. The link I posted is moreso showing the potential outcomes, when these aren't the overriding concerns of councils. We're absolutely the shareholders and local elections should be the performance review.

After the meeting, who has e-mailed public reps? If you have, can you advise who? The same ones that turned up? Seems to me we got an awful lot of BS from them all. Ryan stood up and pretty re-read the flyer as if it was his own words.

We get about 1000/1500 houses before we plunge into another decade long recession, including those being built.
18 years in donabate now, practically the day I moved in I heard about the ring road. No doubt we'll have development but civic development will fall well short.